INFO: E-Prime Go Best Practices [35507]

This article applies to:

E-Prime Go 1.0

Detail 

Do not use 0 as the Subject number

In some versions of E-Prime Go a participant running an E-Prime Go experiment can run as Subject 0. This results in no data file being generated (see INFO: Specifying a Subject number during Startup Info prompts [17161]) along with the following error message upon completion of the experiment run:

Subject number 0 in recent E-Prime Go versions (1.0.3.61 and greater)

Recent E-Prime Go releases prohibit participants from entering Subject 0 at the experiment Startup Info prompt. When the Packer application detects a minimum subject number of 0, the following notification appears and the E-Prime Go experiment increases the minimum Subject number to 1:

NOTE: Although the packed E-Prime Go experiment has a new minimum Subject number, the original .ebs3 file remains unchanged (i.e., 0 can still be entered when running the experiment outside of E-Prime Go).

Subject number 0 in prior E-Prime Go versions (1.0.1.35, 1.0.1.44, 1.0.2.41, and 1.0.2.57)

Earlier version of E-Prime Go allow participants to enter Subject number 0 at the experiment Startup Info prompt which will result in data loss. To avoid this issue, change the minimum Subject number by navigating to the Experiment Object > Startup Info tab > and editing the minimum value for the Subject prompt to be a non-zero number (most likely 1).

Enable Display Flipping in the Display device settings

Running on Windows 8 and beyond requires Display Flipping to be enabled for timing purposes. For more information, see AV: DisplayDevice.FlippingEnabled [18483].

Uncheck the Sound Device if the experiment is not presenting sound 

If an experiment does not present any sound, then the Sound device should be unchecked. To do this, navigate to the Experiment Object > Devices > and uncheck the Sound device.

This eliminates the possibility of having participants run into errors related to not having a compatible sound system despite one not being necessary for the experiment.

Recommend Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (Conditional Exit) over Ctrl+Alt+Shift if sharing abort sequences with participants 

When providing participants instructions on how to terminate an experiment early, have participants perform the Conditional Exit (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace).

Using Ctrl+Alt+Shift to terminate an experiment results in a runtime error and does not provide an .edat3 file. However, the recovery text file may be used to regenerate an .edat3 file. Using this method results in a status of "Canceled" on eprimego.com.

Using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace performs a "graceful abort" and provides an .edat3 file (i.e., the .edat3 does not need to be regenerated). A test session using the graceful abort has a status of "Complete" on eprimego.com. Use the method below to check for this occurrence.

NOTE: See INFO: Experiment status on the E-Prime Go website [36990] for more information on E-Prime Go statuses.

Add a check for graceful abort

When a participant performs a graceful abort (INFO: Conditional Exit (Graceful Abort) [17943]), data uploads successfully if an .edat3 is produced and no error occurs. However, there is no indication that the experiment was terminated early besides noticing the missing data. An Attribute can be logged in the data file (.edat3) to easily identify when this occurs. To do so, place an InLine as the last object on SessionProc with the following script:

If GetConditionalExitState <> 0 Then c.SetAttrib "GracefulAbort", "YES"

Pack the experiment in a clean folder

We recommend packing E-Prime Go experiments in a new, clean folder. This can be done by opening the File Explorer > right-clicking > New > Folder. Packing an experiment in an old, "unclean" folder may result in unintended files being automatically added to the packed .exe as resource files. For example, packing an .ebs3 file that is on the Desktop may result in files from every sub-folder on the Desktop being added to the packed .exe file (See BUG FIX: Packing may appear to freezes when packing .ebs3 files in folders with thousands of files [36044] and BUG FIX: Attempting to pack in a root directory results in error [36040] for more information).

Selecting folders with multiple experiments in recent E-Prime Go versions (1.0.3.61 and greater)

Recent E-Prime Go releases detect when the selected folder or sub-folders contain additional experiment(s) and displays the following notification:

Instruct potential participants to always download and run from eprimego.com

We advise all prospective participants to run the desired task from eprimego.com. This ensures that they are using the latest version (see INFO: Running with the latest Unpacker [36898] for more information).

See Also:

INFO: E-Prime Go Troubleshooting [41044]

TIMING: Verifying your E-Prime Go Timing [35028]

INFO: E-Prime Go pre-selects likely Resource Files based on location and file type [35261]

For more advice, the E-Primer website provides a list of Tips and Tricks for using E-Prime Go.